June 2019 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Upcoming ARISS contact with King Island District High School, Currie, TAS, Australia
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 18 Jun '19

18 Jun '19

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at King Island District High School, Currie, TAS, Australia on 19 June. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 08:49 UTC. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between OR4ISS and IK1SLD. The contact should be audible over Italy and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English. King Island District High School is located in the Bass Strait off the North West Coast of Tasmania. We cater for approximately 210 students from Kinder to Year 10. Our school is at the heart of our community, we value each student and their family. We have been striving to create resilient, innovative lifelong learners; our school has been on a learning journey with Literacy and Numeracy as our core fundamentals. Our students have the opportunities for on-island and off-island camps from Year 3 and up, we participate in sporting events in mainland Tasmania, we have students from Kinder to Year 10 being able to access specialist Music and Art lessons. We are grateful to have a well resourced MDT room, Computer Lab, kitchen which has then eventuated into a school café 'The Rock Café', which offers café style lunches, drinks and monthly dinners to our community giving our students first-hand experience of hospitality. We are also in the process of building our own golf hole to fit in with the islands golfing influx of late. Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. Why did you become an astronaut? 2. What training do you need to be an astronaut to go to space and where did you do your training? 3. What sort of food do you eat and how do you determine your meal times in space? 4. What do you do in your spare time so you don't get bored while in space? 5. Does it get lonely in space? 6. How do you exercise in space? 7. How old is the International Space Station and do parts wear out in space like they do on earth? 8. What is your job on the ISS and how do you do it? 9. What are space worms and why are they so important in space? 10. How long does it take to orbit the earth? 11. Have you researched the black hole and if so, how big is it? 12. What kind of research do you do? 13. Do you have any advice for any of our students wishing to follow in your career path? PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES: Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status Next planned event(s): 1. Rowan Preparatory School, Claygate, United Kingdom, direct via GB4RPS The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Nick Hague KG5TMV Contact is go for: Thu 2019-06-20 12:48 UTC Watch for live stream at https://live.ariss.org/ About ARISS Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or public forms. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org. Thank you & 73, David - AA4KN --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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ISS APRS Digipeater
by Jeff Johns 18 Jun '19

18 Jun '19

Here’s to hoping that the ISS digipeater is turned-on sometime soon. I missed getting to use it on a couple of passes today. Jeff Johns WE4B

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Fixed elevation - how many elements?
by Martin Cooper 18 Jun '19

18 Jun '19

I'm contemplating building a couple of yagis, possibly even crossed ones, and putting them up at fixed elevation (i.e. az-only rotator). What I'm unclear about is how many elements to consider. My location is really pretty dreadful for seeing sky. There's a big hill to the NE that restricts me to above 40 degrees in that direction. I'm in a single-storey house, with neighbouring two-storey houses to the NW, SW, and S. In between all that, there are other single-storey houses, and trees in most of the gaps between houses. I can't afford to put up a tower (and it could never get above the hill anyway), so I'm looking at not too much above my roofline. To at least get through the trees, I'd think more elements would be better. But more elements narrows the beam, and at fixed elevation, that, at some point, will restrict even further how much of the sky I can play with. I'm looking for thoughts on how many elements would be recommended, and how many would be too many, for a fixed elevation, both for VHF and UHF. Ultimately, I'd like to be able to get on the linears, so not limited to the FM sats. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance. Martin. KD6YAM

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-06-17 20:30 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 17 Jun '19

17 Jun '19

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-06-17 20:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: GBPOU RM "Saransk Polytechnic College", Saransk Russia, direct via R4UAB The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Oleg Konenenko Contact is go for Sat 2019-06-15 10:39 UTC King Island District High School, Currie, TAS, Australia, telebridge via IK1SLD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques KG5FYI Contact is go for: Wed 2019-06-19 08:49:20 UTC 58 deg Rowan Preparatory School, Claygate, United Kingdom, direct via GB4RPS The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Nick Hague KG5TMV Contact is go for: Thu 2019-06-20 12:48:55 UTC 53 deg Watch for live stream at https://live.ariss.org/ Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI, direct via W8TCM The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Nick Hague KG5TMV (***) Contact is go for: Fri 2019-06-28 14:02:16 UTC 25 deg (***) Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8601 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2019-06-17 20:30 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2019-06-16 17:00 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. The main page for Applying to Host a Scheduled Contact may be found at http://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** ARISS Contact Applications (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Schools and Youth organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East interested in setting up an ARISS radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station are invited to submit an application from September to October and from February to April. Please refer to details and the application form at www.ariss-eu.org/school-contacts. Applications should be addressed by email to: school.selection.manager(a)ariss-eu.org ARISS Contact Applications (Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and Russia) Organizations outside the United States can apply for an ARISS contact by filling out an application. Please direct questions to the appropriate regional representative listed below. If your country is not specifically listed, send your questions to the nearest ARISS Region listed. If you are unsure which address to use, please send your question to the ARISS-Canada representative; they will forward your question to the appropriate coordinator. For the application, go to: http://www.ariss.org/ariss-application.html. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD email to: ve3tbd(a)gmail.com ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ email to: ariss(a)iaru-r3.org, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) http://www.jarl.org/ ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) https://srr.ru/ ****************************************************************************** ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.8Ø MHz. ******************************************************************************* All ARISS contacts are made via the Kenwood radio unless otherwise noted. ******************************************************************************* Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and not being able to get in. That has now been changed to http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************** Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? Please note that the HamTV system has been brought back to earth for troubleshooting. Please monitor ARISS-EU or ARISS-ON for the very latest news on the troubleshooting efforts. If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video. http://www.ariss-eu.org/ If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net The HamTV webpage: https://www.amsat-on.be/hamtv-summary/ **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 135 Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 117 **************************************************************************** The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed, and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1317. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1260. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 58 on orbit Oleg Konenenko David St-Jacques KG5FYI Anne McClain Exp. 59 on orbit Christina Koch Aleksey Ovchinin Nick Hague KG5TMV **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Quads on the satellites
by John Geiger 17 Jun '19

17 Jun '19

Has anyone tried the Cubix dualband quad on the satellites? I am wondering (hoping) that it might have a better elevation pattern than my Cushcraft A270-10S dualband yagi does. On Mode B passes, the satellite has to get to a 25 degree elevation or more before I really have a good chance at getting into the FM satellites. It would be nice to have something that allowed for better success at the lower elevations also. 73 John W5TD (ex AF5CC)

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-06-17 16:30 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 17 Jun '19

17 Jun '19

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-06-17 16:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: GBPOU RM "Saransk Polytechnic College", Saransk Russia, direct via R4UAB The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Oleg Konenenko Contact is go for Sat 2019-06-15 10:39 UTC King Island District High School, Currie, TAS, Australia, telebridge via IK1SLD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques KG5FYI Contact is go for: Wed 2019-06-19 08:49:20 UTC 58 deg Rowan Preparatory School, Claygate, United Kingdom, direct via GB4RPS The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Nick Hague KG5TMV Contact is go for: Thu 2019-06-20 12:48:55 UTC 53 deg Watch for live stream at https://live.ariss.org/ Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8601 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2019-06-17 16:30 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2019-06-16 17:00 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. The main page for Applying to Host a Scheduled Contact may be found at http://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** ARISS Contact Applications (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Schools and Youth organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East interested in setting up an ARISS radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station are invited to submit an application from September to October and from February to April. Please refer to details and the application form at www.ariss-eu.org/school-contacts. Applications should be addressed by email to: school.selection.manager(a)ariss-eu.org ARISS Contact Applications (Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and Russia) Organizations outside the United States can apply for an ARISS contact by filling out an application. Please direct questions to the appropriate regional representative listed below. If your country is not specifically listed, send your questions to the nearest ARISS Region listed. If you are unsure which address to use, please send your question to the ARISS-Canada representative; they will forward your question to the appropriate coordinator. For the application, go to: http://www.ariss.org/ariss-application.html. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD email to: ve3tbd(a)gmail.com ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ email to: ariss(a)iaru-r3.org, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) http://www.jarl.org/ ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) https://srr.ru/ ****************************************************************************** ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.8Ø MHz. ******************************************************************************* All ARISS contacts are made via the Kenwood radio unless otherwise noted. ******************************************************************************* Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and not being able to get in. That has now been changed to http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************** Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? Please note that the HamTV system has been brought back to earth for troubleshooting. Please monitor ARISS-EU or ARISS-ON for the very latest news on the troubleshooting efforts. If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video. http://www.ariss-eu.org/ If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net The HamTV webpage: https://www.amsat-on.be/hamtv-summary/ **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 135 Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 117 **************************************************************************** The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed, and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1317. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1260. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 58 on orbit Oleg Konenenko David St-Jacques KG5FYI Anne McClain Exp. 59 on orbit Christina Koch Aleksey Ovchinin Nick Hague KG5TMV **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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HS10KING on QO-100
by Tanan Rangseeprom 17 Jun '19

17 Jun '19

Dear AMSAT member, To strengthen the relationship between Thai and Japanese amateur radio operators representatives of the JAMSAT group of Japan have travelled to Thailand to visit the satellite ground station HS0AJ and will operate from the Ground Station of the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand under the patronage of His Majesty the King (RAST). On the occasion of the coronation of His Majesty King Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, HS10A (pronounced "Hotel Sierra-TEN-Alpha), as the 10th king to reign in the Chakri Dynasty, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), Thailand's regulator, has authorized the special callsign HS10KING (pronounced "Hotel Sierra-TEN-KING). There will be an opportunity to communicate with HS10KING using the QO-100 amateur radio satellite and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites that windows pass over Thailand by amateur radio stations which is similar to AMSAT Germany's use of the special callsign DL50AMSAT using the QO-100 satellite. RAST hence invites AMSAT amateur radio satellite operators to join in contacting the HS10KING special event station from June 22, 2019 at 10.00 UTC (17.00 Thailand time) until June 23, 2019 at 10.00 UTC (17.00 Thailand time) using SSB mode and DATV (333 - 250 KS) signals from the station HS10KING. Please be informed and let others know of this opportunity. Sincerely and with respect, de HS1JAN Tanan Rangseeprom Project Manager of JAISAT-1

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AO-85 report from the 2019-06-16 - 0028 UTC pass
by John Brier 17 Jun '19

17 Jun '19

Hi, I made five QSOs on this 47 degree pass from FM05. I was using my Kenwood TM-V71 radio at 50 watts and an Alaskan Arrow II antenna with the last third boom section removed. I didn't hear the bird for the first couple minutes of the pass and couldn't get it to come on myself. Eventually it came on and I heard Clayton W5PFG not long after that so I assume he turned the transponder on. In the first half of the pass it was difficult to get a solid signal into the sat. Other stations had the same problems. Audio was sometimes really low, great other times, and distorted at times as well. The last part of the pass was not bad though. I was able to consistently get a signal into the bird, even at 10 or 5 watts. I had a conversation with Roy K3RLD about this as we were both having the same good luck. This reminded me of past AO-85 behavior where it is easier to get in in the last part of the pass. I was actually on top of a landfill park in my town so I had a perfect view of the horizon and was able to get in all the way to LOS, albeit with some picket fencing effects on the downlink. Stations contacted: W5PFG W5HRH N9XCO * N0RC K3RLD Also heard ???PML * This was Richard N9XCO's first sat QSO. He just finished setting up a IC-9700/G-5500/SatPC32 station One odd thing I noticed is at the end of the pass I believe I was at 145.970 MHz, 10 KHz down from the center frequency of 145.980. It looked so weird I did a double take and doubted I was really at that frequency. I don't know if the bird was off frequency or if it was something on my end. My audio recording is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j1xduj3had9gicm/2019-06-16_0028_UTC_AO-85_KG4AKV_… 73, John Brier KG4AKV

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Recent rove by N6DNM in DN00/10, DN20/30, DN41/51, DM79, DM58/59, DM48/49 grids
by Dmitry Mizin 17 Jun '19

17 Jun '19

Hello, Thank You for chasing me on my recent trip from above grids and mostly gridlines. I have uploaded (and corrected some) all entries into LOTW. I am sure I still have made a few mistakes with entries - so, if you worked me between 20190606 and 20190615 when I was in those gridline(s) and do not see a LOTW confirmation - please let me know. There were two undecipherable entries in my audio recordings from DM58/59 and DM48/49 both on SO-50 - if you are one of them, please let me know and I will review my recordings again. Once confirmed - will upload corrected entries. Thank you all again! It was a blast as this was my first "big" trip doing those activations. There will be more coming soon. Dmitry Mizin, N6DNM

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input power question
by mikflathead＠aol.com 16 Jun '19

16 Jun '19

I have completed my sat station but am having trouble hearing myself. I have checked cables and antenna ( M2) sat antenna. All seems well with low SWR. I can hear on the 2 meter downlink. How much power is needed on the UHF uplink? Hope to figure this out shortly. This is being done on the SSB sats. Thanks Mike WB8PFZ

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